The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a San Diego-based nonprofit that has been providing assistance to victims of identity theft since 1999, is sounding a warning of major increases in certain types of personal data theft along with more complex attacks and scams.
The most eye-popping item from the group’s annual 2022 Consumer Impact Report is a 1,000% increase in social media account takeover attacks in 2021. Criminals coming back for more money is also an increasing problem in the wake of a compromise, as they appear to be focusing in on identities from which they were initially able to steal a significant amount. And there is an overall increased probability of personal information being misused if it is lost in a data breach.
Personal data theft issues taking longer to resolve
The ITRC surveyed a total of about 1,600 victims of personal data theft. 40% of these victims say that their personal data was stolen, compromised or misused during the period of April 2021 to March 2022.
There are some small pieces of good news from the survey: the number of repeat personal data theft victims appears to be down somewhat, as is the average amount of money lost in incidents for most victims (under $500). However, about 50% of the survey respondents say they were victimized more than once. And criminals appear to be focusing on the most lucrative targets, as the amount of people that lost at least $10,000 to personal data theft jumped from 9% of respondents in 2020 to 30% in…
